Researchers have warned that an uninhabited island in the South Pacific, one of the world’s most remote places, is one of the worst affected by pollution from plastic debris. Dr Jennifer Lavers said the highest density of plastic debris ever recorded were found on the shores of Henderson Island, one of the Pitcairn Islands, following a recent expedition. Dr Lavers estimated that 17 tonnes of plastic waste had been swept onto the shores of Henderson Island from South America and fishing ships by currents in the Pacific Ocean. “What’s happened on Henderson Island shows there’s no escaping plastic pollution even in the most distant parts of our oceans,” said Dr Lavers of the Institute for Marine &amp; Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania in a statement. “Far from being the pristine ‘deserted island’ that people might imagine of such a remote place, Henderson Island is a shocking but typical example of how plastic debris is affecting the environment on a global scale. This video shows the conditions on East Beach on Henderson Island. Credit: Dr Jennifer Lavers via Storyful

Diver Richard Horner said he’d never seen anything on this scale.Source:YouTube

Once the waste ends up in the ocean it gets swept up by currents and becomes very difficult to retrieve.

Mr Horner first posted the video to Facebook where it was shared more than 19,000 times. In the description, Mr Horner wrote that he’d “never seen anything like this scale.”

But sadly, it’s tipped to get worse.

A report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation launched last year at the World Economic Forum found the equivalent of a garbage truck worth of plastic bottles was being dumped into the ocean every minute.

“The ocean is expected to contain one tonne of plastic for every three tonnes of fish by 2025, and by 2050, more plastics than fish (by weight),” the report stated.

It’s predicted plastic could outweigh fish in the ocean by 2050.Source:YouTube

Most parts of Australia have been slow to introduce anti-plastic measures such as banning single use plastic bags. However, late last year Victoria promised to ban them “as soon as possible” leaving NSW as the only state not to fully commit to a future ban. Queensland and Western Australia will ban them from later this year.

The Greens have previously declared a war on plastic bags and microbeads to save Australia’s oceans.

Last month Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson called on the government to take seriously the issue of plastics pollution in the ocean, an issue that has drawn responses from countries around the world and even the Queen.

“We have no plan at all in this country, and we’re a country girt by sea,” Senator Whish-Wilson told reporters in Canberra.